


Shuffle the Deck

by TinyBat



Category: Once Upon A Time - Fandom
Genre: F/F, F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2012-12-07
Updated: 2012-12-07
Packaged: 2017-11-20 13:17:31
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,477
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/585763
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TinyBat/pseuds/TinyBat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Fluffy christmas goodness, morning after shame, a welcome shoulder, and other goodness.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Shuffle the Deck

**Author's Note:**

> I asked for prompts on tumblr for my ships to celebrate finishing my english final. My followers obliged because they're 7 kinds of awesome.

One of the primary perks of being Sheriff was that Emma could foist off work on other people for 30 minutes whenever she wanted. She liked being the boss for precisely that reason. Ruby had picked up a shift with her at the station answering phones and taking simple assignments in her downtime, the dwarves took turns to patrol when they weren't mining, and Charming helped out with the big things. Leaving Charming to dig through files, Emma took her leave to go grab Henry from school for lunch at Granny's. 

She nodded at him through the window in the door of his classroom and waited for the class to finish their lesson. Emma pressed herself against the wall when the bell rang to avoid being flattened by ravenous schoolchildren. Henry ambled over with a curious expression on his face.

"Hi Emma, Snow 's grabbing stuff out of the supply closet. Should I get her?"

"No, Henry. I'm here actually to see if you wanted to go grab lunch. I've left your grandfather in charge of a 3 foot high stack of files, so we've got time." Emma grinned, assigning Charming paperwork was one of the little things that made her feel better about growing up without him to father her in the way fathers do. Henry grinned too, but only because Charming once told him in confidence that he hated it but knew that's what Emma was doing so he put up with it. The boy's expression changed from curious to slightly concerned.

"Umm, actually. I was going to go eat lunch with Grace and a few friends under that one huge tree in the yard. She says she can climb higher but I told her that she might have a hard time in a skirt. She put shorts on under it today so it won't be a problem. She's awesome! She knows about frogs, and Mario Kart and she's really good at piano because her dad's teaching her and..." 

Grace, that wasn't a name she was expecting to hear. It sent to oddest shiver down her spine, in her head the girls father said the name like a prayer and a curse. He was agonized over their separation to the point where he'd gone mad from it. He wasn't a bad man, no one person so wholly devoted to their child could be bad; he had made some truly awful decisions though and Emma clenched her fists at the thought. It only occurred to her that Henry was still speaking after the anger died down.

"Grace, Grace. Henry? Is Grace living with her dad?" Emma looked down at the boy, examining his face for any sign of an answer. He nodded enthusiastically and the biggest smile Emma had seen from him all week threatened to split his face.

"Jefferson? Yep! I helped him find her! He's a great guy. You know he's the Mad Hatter right? She's so happy to be living with him, apparently they have a huge house now and they play hide and seek in the woods after he picks her up from the bus! She said they used to play hide and seek in the Enchanted Forest too. He was really worried that she'd hate him for leaving her. But now everything is fine! Charming and I did a lot while you and Snow were away!" The excitable boy was so pleased with his good deed that he didn't register the multitude of expressions ranging from shock, horror, relief, and bemusement crossing his mothers face.

"You know what Henry, you go have fun. Be careful climbing and make sure you eat something first so you don't get dizzy and fall. We can get dinner with my parents tonight, I think I want to go find Grace's dad before I go eat." Emma patted her son on the shoulder, waved to her mother quickly and ran to her car as quickly as the small bodies milling around would allow. He was alive, Jefferson was alive. How? Did she have enough magic before the curse broke to really make his hat work? The fastest way to his house from the school would lead her right past Granny's, her stomach rumbled. Maybe interrogating the Hatter could wait until after a sandwich.

Emma found a parking spot in front of the diner, and stepped inside. Whatever special was on for today smelled incredible. If Ruby hadn't informed her otherwise, Emma would have sworn Widow Lucas had magic of her own. No one persons cooking should be that good, it just wasn't right.

A familiar figure was sitting at a stool near the door, Emma's heart nearly stopped in her chest. He was here, in one piece. That fall from the window should have crippled him, but there he was in front of her and apparently well enough to play hide and go seek with a 10 year old girl five days a week. Did she get food and then drill him with questions, or shout at him until she felt like she could put their first encounter behind them and then grab something quick to go? Screw it, she'd...

"Emma?" Damn, he'd noticed her. 

"You. You're in one piece I see." Interrogation and a salad to go it is. Jefferson spun around atop his barstool to face her. Parenting suited him, none of that predatory animal caginess was present in the way he was sitting and that crushing weariness she had seen in his eyes was gone too. He looked younger and happier than she would have thought possible. It took her even more by surprise than hearing her name had.

"Very much so, I should thank you for it. Despite your intense denial you got my hat to work; and it put me back in my room after your amazonian mother kicked me out that window.. Can I help you with something?" He was smiling, and it wasn't that eerie cheshire cat grin he'd worn as she drifted out of consciousness on his couch; or that hopeful ghost of one only barely there when she'd lied about agreeing to help him. This was real and brilliant. He was enjoying her evident discomfort.

"How did you know I was here?" She hadn't made much noise and there wasn't a bell on the door like in other diners. Granny's hearing more than took care of it.

"I saw your reflection in the glass, you're very hard to miss. Besides, I don't think i'd be able to forget the car that ran me off the road if I tried." Still smiling, he gestured for her to sit beside him. There was a book and a mug of what looked like hot chocolate in front of him. He couldn't do anything to her in public and was far too clever to try, Emma didn't see any harm in it so she slid on in beside him.

"You made it so I could hit you, and if I had known what would happen, I would have really hit you." Emma flashed a grin of her own. The man next to her wasn't radiating grief and insanity, just peace and good humor. She'd say her piece as civilly as possible and leave. "I went to see Henry at school, he bailed on lunch here with me to eat with Grace and climb trees. He says she knows about frogs, Mario Kart, and can play piano. Also that hide and seek is a common after-school activity for her."

"My actions definitely merited being hit. They merit far more than that and I promise i'll find a way to make it up to you and your mother." The smile disappeared and was replaced with such sadness than a hole opened up in Emma's stomach. It left almost as quickly as it came. Grace was truly working a miracle on her father. He continued on a lighter note. "Yes, she likes frogs and i'll never understand why. They don't turn into princes and it worries me that she might kiss them anyway, just to spite me. As for Mario Kart, that was a pre-curse thing. She's much better than I am, she's been trying to teach me in exchange for piano lessons. Did you see the piano during our regrettable encounter?"

He was still looking at her, it was making her uncomfortable. It wasn't threatening, it just made her feel odd. No, she wasn't a fan. But asking him to stop would clue him and he'd probably just keep going. Hitting him in a public venue would look bad while she was on duty, and it definitely wouldn't make the feeling go away.

"Yeah, briefly. Between my missed opportunity to flatten you, and your horrendous error in judgement with the tea. You put your weirdly detailed map on it. Is that what Grace is learning on?" inquired Emma, she was impressed. It was a pretty big piano and from what she'd seen of Grace she was a tiny girl. But given how clever her father was, he'd probably found a way to teach her so it wasn't an issue. 

" It is. One of the few things in the house I don't hate on sight after all this time." Jefferson paused for a moment, he seemed to be cataloging the things in his house that weren't a painful reminder of his imprisonment. "I have more music than I can keep track of so I'd just play for weeks. She was curious when she moved in so I let her mess around. It's one of the few things that will actually keep her inside. I found her on one of the flat bits of our roof doing her homework. Even before the curse she didn't like staying inside too long. I wonder how her teachers get her to pay attention." He smiled again, the smile that made him seem years younger and healthier than Emma would have believed. As angry as she was at the man beside her, it was evident that he wouldn't be any harm to anyone again now that his daughter was in his life.

"Henry's the same way. I don't think Regina let him play outside much. But Snow is amazing with kids, and she's ridiculously patient so I don't think they give her much trouble. Besides, if Henry acted up she'd probably just threaten to not take him riding. My father got him a horse while we were away. Of all the things! What 10 year old boy needs a horse?" Emma had been absolutely blown away when Henry had told her the news. Her father, Prince Charming, had gotten Henry, her son, a horse; because any relative of royalty should know how to ride a horse. Emma couldn't even stand next to a horse, there had been attempted lessons but she was awful. Snow almost toppled off her enormous brown mount laughing at Emma's attempts at guiding the horse in a slow plod out of the stable. The horse wasn't having it and Emma wasn't either.

Clearly her frustration was making itself known on her face because Jefferson had begun to laugh. It was a low sound, warm, and pleasant, and the part of Emma that she'd been viciously ignoring since she sat down, wanted him to keep laughing. She gave a huff of frustration and began explaining the disaster of meeting her horse and not being able to get it out of the stable with all the wild hand gestures and shoddy imitations she was capable of. She hated that horse and the horse hated her, she was positive. The laughing started again, but only this time Emma had joined in; the whole thing was just so ridiculous that she had to. She wasn't very good with animals, especially animals the size of a car.

It can't have been that bad. I'm not great with horses either, but the first time I tried the horse actually let me on. It did ruin my hat though. The trick with horses is that they can smell fear, like small children and dogs. The only way I got through my first ride was to sit there thinking really angry thoughts, it seemed to work too. If you're angry, you can't be afraid." 

"Yeah, okay Mr. Horse Expert, you think you can teach that thing not to hate me enough to actually let me ride it?" She was in disbelief, but if he was raising a soon to be teenage girl by himself he was probably capable of a good deal of other things.

" Why yes Sheriff Swan, I do indeed. And I prefer Hat Expert or God of Leather Pants and Sarcasm. DILF has also been used, that was all Red though. I can teach you to get on the horse. Maybe even get it to walk without any mutual injuries. I'm a portal jumper, i've seen and done enough amazing things to fill a room full of books. I think I can get a stubborn horse and a princess with a police issue gun and enough magic to power Disney Land to co-exist."

Emma needed a moment to process the nicknames the Hatter had given her for use. God of Leather Pants and Sarcasm, that she'd need some proof of. DILF? She could believe. Jefferson was in possession of the most irritatingly self satisfied smirk Emma had ever seen. It was sexy in an annoying kind of way. She'd let him teach her, if their kids could be friends, maybe they could be too. Emma wasn't going to say no to a handsome friend she could commiserate over single parenting with.

"Ok, God of Leather Pants and Sarcasm. I'll make a few calls and you can try to get me on that horse. We just need to be ready to go collect our children." He may still be a little bit mad, but that was actually okay with her. Looking at the was her life was now, mad suited her just fine. She pulled out her phone, texted Charming, and gave Snow a quick ring, letting her know that Emma may be a little late getting Henry. She found a riding teacher and wanted to test him out.

"So, Princess. Are you ready to go show the horse you aren't a complete coward?" Jefferson asked, leaving a tip on the counter before they set out towards Emma's car.

"I certainly am, but call me Princess again and i'll find a way to cause lasting bodily harm." Company would be nice, a friend would be even better. They were a strange pair, too much in common to talk about and with no proper way to explain. They'd just let the simplicity of a fresh start speak for them. Looking back, after marrying her odd Hatter; she considered it their first date.


End file.
